Rectifying columns packed with glass fibers speed up production of ethyl alcohol

✍ Scribed by R.H.O.

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1943
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 63 KB
• Volume: 236
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/s0016-0032(43)90540-x

✦ Synopsis

Rectifying Columns Packed with Glass Fibers Speed Up Production of Ethyl Alcohol.--A marked speed-up in the rate of distillation of the rectifying columns used by the beverage distilling industry to produce I9o proof ethyl alcohol required for explosives, synthetic rubber and other uses, has been made possible by the development by Owens-Coming Fiberglas Corporation of a new glass fiber packing material for the columns. The glass fibers can replace both the tinned-copper bubble plates with which the industry has equipped its columns, and the burned-clay Raschig rings which the industry resorted to as a substitute when tinned copper became unavailable. It is believed that the material will also prove practical for use in distillation applications in the chemical, petroleum and other industries. A principal factor in determining the rate of distillation of an alcohol rectifying column is the amount of exposed surface area which is presented for the condensation of water and other liquids. The ability of the glass fibers to increase the rate of distillation is due to the great increase in exposed surface area presented by the fibers, as compared to the exposed surface area presented by either the bubble plates or the Raschig rings. One method employed in packing the columns with glass fibers consists of placing them in large, expanded metal baskets which fit, one over the other, into the inside of the column. When used at their normal density of 3.5 pounds to the cubic foot, the fibers present I35 square feet of exposed surface area per cubic foot. This compares with an exposed surface area of 56 square feet per cubic foot when the Raschig rings are used. The beverage distilling industry formerly employed a column with a copper shell tinned on the inside, but the columns it is now erecting are built like a silo, of clay tile, cypress staves, or steel plates salvaged from tanks formerly used for other purposes. The new columns are from 4 to IO feet in diameter, and are approximately 50 feet high. The operation of columns packed with glass fibers is identical with that of columns packed with Raschig rings, or fitted with the tinnedcopper bubble plates. Heated vapors from stills producing the normal run of I2O-I4O proof alcohol pass up through the column. Water and other liquids with a boiling point higher than the I7o degrees, Fahrenheit, boiling point of ethyl alcohol condense on the bubble plates, Raschig rings or glass fibers, and flow back to be reheated and re-vaporized by the rising vapors from the still, until the last vestige of alcohol is extracted from them. The vapors which finally pass out through the top of the column into a condenser become I9o proof alcohol with only 5 per cent. of water content.

R. H.O.